I drove thru there a few weeks ago on the way to Tunica, quickly! Saw alot of old furniture littering the sides of the streets and alot of unsavory characters loitering the chicken joints and gas stations. Im glad we didnt need gas.

So you drove down HWY 61 on your way to Tunica and base your jugement on that. That's the same ignorance I run in to when I go to California and tell people I grew up in Arkansas and they really think Arkansans are barefoot and without electricity.

That stretch of Memphis is in one of the worse areas of town. There are much better parts.

That is what I was talking about earlier. We have ignorant people like that who judge the whole city of Memphis based on what they saw in Westwood. A rule of thumb about cities is that if you can see the skyline from where you are standing, then you are in the ghetto. Highway 61 (The Trail to Tunica) is Third Street. Third Street is where the FedEx Forum is located just to give you guys an idea of how deep in the inner city Westwood is.

I lived in Fayetteville from 91 through 99, graduated from the UofA, built a home off of Weddington, worked at several local hospitals and loved the area. Northwest Arkansas has a lot of great qualities but it is also lacking many things that make living in a bigger city like Memphis great. I moved here in 99 and although there are things about the city and every other city in America that I don't like, Memphis offers so much more than NWA can offer at this point. Great restaurants, great entertainment, great schools (private) and a diverse population. I love it here and will continue to root for my Hogs from this side of the river. Reading some of the things that are written about Memphis on this site are laughable because to me they are written from a tourist Beale Street or Platinum mentality. Which, in my opinion, isn't this city at all!

woooooopig

I lived there for four years. It is a dirty old town. There are some nice parts, but if you drive five minutes in any direction you will be in a place you could likely be shot.

I lived on Mud Island for two years. There are very few areas that I would consider nice. This was one of those areas, but drive 2 minutes down around the corner, and you were in a bad part of town. It's not anywhere I would want to settle down and raise a family, but it wasn't a bad city to live in while I was young and still soiling my wild oats. It wasn't a bad experience at all. And they have done A LOT downtown. 10 years ago you NEVER walked downtown by yourself. They have really started to fix it up. The Redbirds stadium, the Grizzlies new home. It's a lot better than it used to be, but it still has a longggggggggggggggg way to go.

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IM4UARK

I like Memphis. Three years ago, I took the wife and kids for a couple of days (nice zoo, nice children's museum). We stayed at the Madison Hotel, which is also nice. Went back and spent the night at the Madison last month. Hotel's still nice, but WOW! Downtown was deserted at 5 on a Friday, and just down the street from the Madison two bums/crack dealers started to throwdown as my wife and I ran for the hotel. I've traveled to some of the largest cities in North America on business, spent most of last year working in NYC, and I've never felt in danger like I did in that evening in Memphis.

Like Neuro, I tend to judge cities by the ER rooms at the local public hospital. I don't know Memphis at all. But it sounds a lot like Baltimore. I did a intern rotation at the "publically funded" hospital in Baltimore. It was more like a mash unit. In the summer, at the end of the month when the wellfare checks came out, it was a true war zone. GSW's were the "normal" thing and standard procedure, it was the knife, ax, broken bottle, tire iron, and other various and assorted "weapons" of convienence that caused some extrodinary damage. I once had a junkie mom, spray paint inside the anus of her 6 mo old girl, cause she heard the kid would get a rush and would quit crying. The mom was crashing from her heroin high, and didn't want the kid to cry. Turns out the kid was just hungary. The cops and CPS took over ( the baby died but had 2 siblings still at home), but I would love to have 5 minutes alone with that B*%$ch, but she did have "tracks" that were starting to develope gangrene, and I had the nurse clean them out and flush them ( without using any novacaine or any other antithestics------------ she was a junkie!)Horrible things don't only happen in the jungles and deserts---------- our inner cities can be as animalistic as any jungle.

Not sure about the point of this post. I live in Memphis (Mud Island) and have lived in Fayetteville during law school. I wiork downtown, and go to church in Midtown (leaving in a few). I love it, and find the fear of crime and percieved race issues far worse than reality.

Calipari lives off of public golf course Galloway, close to midtown. He hasnt run to Germantown. Its a fine town, and like anywhere, has many problems. Overall, I think if Cal wants to come play for us, its not because he wants to leave the town and and his steakhouse. Its all about coaching. There are a ton of Hog fans here.

If I had the luxury of choosing where to raise my kids, Id be back in NW Arkansas, but my children are fine here. Lets focus on whether or not we get him. He would be great for UA basketball. The recruiting would go through the roof!!! BWA would be packed.

I lived there for a year and it suck! It is dirty and there are so many homeless downtown...

I would hate to live there. I even went to Memphis High (what we called UofM)...that was a joke too.

So you were not intelligent enough to graduate from "Memphis High" huh? Hhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

No...I was intelligent enough to get out.

.........but not intelligent enough to stop posting on a city that you obviously know nothing about.........let's focus on who our next coach will be and stop trying to create reasons why Cal would leave one of the best young teams in America!

You can have Denver. There are no good or bad neighborhoods there. People get shot with impunity. I'd be game for Boulder, Grand Junction or Durango though. If I wanted to retire, I'd think about Ouray.

I'd take Memphis over Little Rock any day. I only wish Memphis and Fayetteville were closer. Memphis has a lot more to do in and around town than Little Rock can come up with. RiverMarket v Beale Street? Red Birds v Travs? Grizzlies v RimRockers? Music v umm, The Clinton Library?

if memphis is so bad, why do so many people live there and love it? most of the one trashing it are dancing around their real reason: memphis just has too much 'color' for their sensibilities.

Jeeze . . . now if you don't like a place where you've lived your a racist.

I thought it was firing black coaches that got that title affixed to your soul these days.

IT IS AN ARMPIT OF A CITY. I lived there. I was raised near there and many of my family live there. They hate it too but they have family businesses there. My Uncle's engraving shop is at the intersection of Madison and Danny Thomas and another Uncle's Electric Company is just off Brook's road. Either place you better be off the street before sunset and god help you if you leave something in your car to walk into the businesses. It won't be there when you come back out and your glass will have to be replaced.

Memphis is big enough to have the good and the bad, it just happened to get 2 or 3 doses of the bad. Some comments here are rediculous though, like judging Memphis by the drive to Tunica (or Arkansas by West Memphis), or by saying people dislike the city becuase of race. I love Memphis and chose to live 4 out of my 6 years there in Midtown because the suburbs are boring and monotone (Pine Bluff native here, and current NWA resident). But noone likes their safety to be endangered or the local corruption the city endures. If you don't like the blues and you can't stand a little trashiness, M-town is just not going to be your cup of tea.

Also, if Beale St. is empty on Friday at 5pm... It's January! I've seen loads of good (and free) music on Friday afternoon at WC Handy, maybe you should give it a chance.

Isn't this conversation about Calipari anyway? Recruiting players to play in an NBA arena is the biggest plus Memphis has going I believe.

if memphis is so bad, why do so many people live there and love it? most of the one trashing it are dancing around their real reason: memphis just has too much 'color' for their sensibilities.

I suspect that several of the posters here are some NWA hillbillies that dislike Memphis solely because of that. Did you all know that there are only two black churches in all of Northwest Arkansas, and they are both right beside each other in Fayetteville? St. James Baptist and St. James Methodist.

And about that new avatar, BigDeal . . . Houston never had it to begin with. He just thought he did. He was a slow white boy. Without Robert Farrell and some loaded Central teams he would have never had a D-I scholarship. Houston Nutt, Jr. is a high school legend in his own mind.

I lived in all three. NWA people are delusional. The land of strip shopping malls, McMansions and chain restaurants cannot compare to Memphis in terms of arts, sophistication, and old money. Cal is a class guy and would never move to NWA. He is an east coast guy and recognizes that strip shopping malls and chain restaurants does not make for a great place to live.

I totally agree with GotPig. I have lived in Memphis, LR, and Fayetteville. No comparison-NWA is head and shoulders above all. Memphis is a fun town to visit, but living there is rough. My friends' houses get broken into routinely, even in the best parts of town. You have to put stuff in your car trunk or your windows will get busted out. The schools are unbelievably awful. The local political corruption is rampant. The Mayor actually threatened to take a city board member outside to fight. The local news has a segment called "City Hall Brawl" and they are not talking about a battle of intellects. I could go on....

I'm not saying JC is coming here, he seems like a big city guy, but if you are looking at quality of life versus bigger city amenities and the problems a city like Memphis brings....

I totally agree with GotPig. I have lived in Memphis, LR, and Fayetteville. No comparison-NWA is head and shoulders above all. Memphis is a fun town to visit, but living there is rough. My friends' houses get broken into routinely, even in the best parts of town. You have to put stuff in your car trunk or your windows will get busted out. The schools are unbelievably awful. The local political corruption is rampant. The Mayor actually threatened to take a city board member outside to fight. The local news has a segment called "City Hall Brawl" and they are not talking about a battle of intellects. I could go on....

I'm not saying JC is coming here, he seems like a big city guy, but if you are looking at quality of life versus bigger city amenities and the problems a city like Memphis brings....

The only way the quality of life is better in NWA is if you are a racist that enjoys chain restaurants and McMansions built by illegal aliens.

I totally agree with GotPig. I have lived in Memphis, LR, and Fayetteville. No comparison-NWA is head and shoulders above all. Memphis is a fun town to visit, but living there is rough. My friends' houses get broken into routinely, even in the best parts of town. You have to put stuff in your car trunk or your windows will get busted out. The schools are unbelievably awful. The local political corruption is rampant. The Mayor actually threatened to take a city board member outside to fight. The local news has a segment called "City Hall Brawl" and they are not talking about a battle of intellects. I could go on....

I'm not saying JC is coming here, he seems like a big city guy, but if you are looking at quality of life versus bigger city amenities and the problems a city like Memphis brings....

The only way the quality of life is better in NWA is if you are a racist that enjoys chain restaurants and McMansions built by illegal aliens.

Not trying to start something here, but that chain restaurant comment got a chuckle out of me. People in NWA think that chain restaurants like Chilli's and Olive Garden are "big time". They get excited when a new shopping center is built that will have common stores like Circuit City and Fred's in it.

I totally agree with GotPig. I have lived in Memphis, LR, and Fayetteville. No comparison-NWA is head and shoulders above all. Memphis is a fun town to visit, but living there is rough. My friends' houses get broken into routinely, even in the best parts of town. You have to put stuff in your car trunk or your windows will get busted out. The schools are unbelievably awful. The local political corruption is rampant. The Mayor actually threatened to take a city board member outside to fight. The local news has a segment called "City Hall Brawl" and they are not talking about a battle of intellects. I could go on....

I'm not saying JC is coming here, he seems like a big city guy, but if you are looking at quality of life versus bigger city amenities and the problems a city like Memphis brings....

The only way the quality of life is better in NWA is if you are a racist that enjoys chain restaurants and McMansions built by illegal aliens.

Ah, playing the race card. I cant believe they let this crap on our forums.

I lived there for 5 years. Loved it. It has its ups and downs. I wouldn't want to raise my family there but I had a great time there and go back to visit 4 or 5 times a year. Looking forward to some Rendezvous ribs and a Silky's bucket in a few weeks.

I got lost there on the way to Atlanta. ARGHH Atlanta...On a positive note I saw a bum in a Santa Claus hat.

Just curious, but how did you get lost in Memphis? There's I-40, 240, and I-55. For a bigger city (relatively speaking), it's really easy to get around. I would say it's easier than Little Rock (not that Little Rock is hard).

I agree. You have to be an idiot to get lost in Memphis. It is basically just a looped freeway with I-55 running through the middle. The worst that can happen is that you'll end up in the exact same spot that you started at. You were going to Atlanta right? So Lamar Avenue basically takes you straight to Birmingham, AL. Little Rock confuses more out-of-towners than Memphis because you have like 5 different freeways meeting at one spot. It's funny to see the out of towners on I40 West in NLR that accidently gets into the I30 lane then try to cut across 3 lanes to get back in the I40 lanes. I usually cut them off and make them stay on I30 so that they'll have to go on towards downtown LR I'm evil like that.

I visit Memphis on a regular basis. Most of the time is business purposes, but I do have family that lives there. I have found that most Arkansas people are intimidated by Memphis because of its size as compared to Arkansas towns. The population of the Memphis Metro area (1.3 M) is half the population of the entire state of Arkansas. The metro area is growing at a rapid pace. DeSoto County is just exploding. The "old money" folks in Memphis, and there are plenty of them, are laid back and operate at a slow pace with that old south mentality. Some of them are still mad at the "yankees" for destroying their ancestors cotton businesses. I would probaly not move to NWA because I am to entrenched in southern life, but it does have pretty scenery

FYI, it may or may not be about race, but there are plenty of black folks moving to areas (like NWA) with Mcmansions and strip malls as well. No one wants to raise their children in communities full of crime with horrible schools. You can drive somewhere for culture and old money, but it sure is nice to go back home to your Macmansion without burglar bars in the windows.

Depends on how old the kids are. In all honesty, Prairie Grove or Farmington are really doing well. Smaller schools, but have a lot to offer. Fayetteville has good elementary schools and a decent high school but some of the problems that come with a big school. Thank God my kids are done with school!